TRACK : With All the Overturned Suspensions, Drug Testing Losing Credibility

Does anyone trust drug testing anymore?

Should anyone?

Increasingly, the credibility of the tests, the procedures and the officials involved is eroding. The recent reinstatement of world champion sprinter Katrin Krabbe and two other German athletes is an example of the cynicism rampant in the sport.

Krabbe and two others were asked to provide samples while training in South Africa last winter. Their samples contained no traces of banned substances, but doctors said they appeared to have come from the same person.

The German track federation suspended the three athletes and their coach Feb. 16 for four years, charging them with tampering with the samples.

Last week the four were reinstated for domestic competition. The International Amateur Athletic Federation, which governs the sport internationally, will decide in May if the runners can again compete outside Germany.

It wasn’t difficult to predict Krabbe’s reinstatement. Track and field’s international drug-testing protocol is extremely precise, and rightfully so.

But more and more suspensions are being overturned when it is discovered that even the smallest aspect of that protocol has been violated. Under the current system, there is little margin for human error.

As more and more of the cases are being appealed in civil courts, this trend will only increase. Especially in American courts, where drug testing in amateur sports can’t stand the scrutiny of the law.

Thus, the widely publicized drugs busts are, very quietly and months later, reversed. The IAAF’s rules now have little bite.

Everyone knows it, even the sport’s officials. An IAAF spokesman described the Krabbe case as a “sad botch-up all around.”

Not so long ago, it was standard for an athlete to test positive and be suspended for life. Then the ban was appealed and changed to 18 months.

If that proved to be inconvenient, then some suspensions were manipulated to enable an athlete to compete in the Olympics.

Testing was a sham then, and the punishment was little better.

It wasn’t just an international scandal. Until a loophole in the rules was closed last year, more than 55% of American track and field athletes required to report for out-of-season testing were excused.

Even when they did report and test positive, there was a good chance they would never serve their entire suspensions.

In this country, the same thing happens. On Monday, Delisa Walton Floyd was reinstated after having been suspended for four years for testing positive for amphetamines at the 1991 World Championships.

Shotputter Jim Doehring, who had been suspended after testing positive for excessive testosterone, was recently reinstated after an arbitration panel ruled there had been “procedural improprieties” at a testing lab.

Last year, distance runner Kathy Franey was suspended for two years after failing to report for a test, but that suspension was later reduced to six months. And Gary Kinder, a decathlete, had his two-year suspension for failing to appear reduced to three months.

The case of Butch Reynolds is fast becoming an embarrassment.

Reynolds, the world record-holder at 400 meters, tested positive at a meet in August of 1990 and was suspended for two years. He appealed and won his case last summer. Reynolds has been exonerated by The Athletics Congress, the national governing body. This week he was cleared to compete domestically.

The problem lies with the IAAF, which has several times postponed hearings. The IAAF now says it cannot hear his arbitration case until May, which give Reynolds little time to reach a qualifying time for the U.S. Olympic trials in June.

The IAAF no doubt is concerned about the embarrassment a public hearing might bring. If, as Reynolds contends, his case has been mishandled and the testing protocol was not followed, the entire testing system would be brought into question.

It’s way too late to worry about that. What the IAAF needs to do is devise drug testing that is fair, that works and that the world can believe in. Good luck.

The 34th Mt. SAC relays will have its usual early-season array of stars. Community college events are Thursday, high school Friday and Saturday, the distance carnival is Friday night, and the invitational events are on Saturday.

The most anticipated match-up will be in the men’s 100 meters Saturday. That race will pit Carl Lewis against Andre Cason, with both sprinters coming off excellent seasons. Lewis won the World Championships in September, and Cason, after winning the World Indoor Championships in 1991, had another excellent indoor season.

Lewis has nothing to prove in the 100, but Cason--who has never matched his indoor success outdoors--does. He said during the indoor season that his times indicated he was on course for his best outdoor season ever.

The long jump had a blockbuster field that included world record-holder Mike Powell and Olympian Larry Myricks. But then last week, Powell told Mt. SAC officials he was not going to compete.

The 200 has Leroy Burrell, former world record-holder at 100 meters, and Danny Everett. The 400 has Steve Lewis and USC’s Quincy Watts.

The women’s 1,500 looks to be one of the most competitive races in the meet. In the field are Suzy Favor Hamilton, Ruth Wysocki and Maria Mutola.

Hamilton has been one of the most competitive racers in the country, Wysocki is coming back after a suspension for competing in South Africa, and Mutola is a powerful high school runner from Mozambique.